Various types of ready-to-eat and cooked cereal products are known. For example, various processed cereal products are known. Such cereal products frequently are made of uniformly processed grains that typically include a processed flour form, which is formed into a desired shape, and baked, toasted or otherwise pre-prepared. Various additives such as sugar or dried fruits are added. Among such processed cereal food products are “Cheereos” or “Wheaties” from General Mills Corp., located in Minneapolis, Minn.
Various forms of cereal products to be cooked are also known. One example is oatmeal, which typically includes a dry form of rolled oats, which is prepared by adding water and then boiled for a period of time until a desired consistency is achieved. One example of an oatmeal product is “Quaker Oats” available from The Quaker Oats Company, Chicago, Ill. Cereal products such as this that are available in a dry form and meant to be cooked will be referred to herein as “cooked cereal” products.
Some ready-to-eat and cooked cereal products have a disadvantage in that the product is digested over a relatively short period of time. For examples cereal products made of a grain or grains that is/are processed in a single way tends to be digested within a given time period. Easy to digest flour based products can typically be digested over a relatively short period of time. With such a product one tends to get hungry relatively quickly after eating. Various known ready-to-eat and cooked cereal products suffer this disadvantage.
One known cereal product directed to providing a longer period of digestion is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,759,612. The product is meant to be digested over an extended period of time providing for the release of energy over an extended period of time. Components of varying levels of fiber and degree of cook are selected. However, this product suffers a number of disadvantages, including that preparation requires several different cooking steps under different preparation conditions, such as preparing different components in separate batches.
De-hulled whole grain oats, known as groats, have various known nutritional benefits including high fiber, and relatively slow digestion times. Likewise bumped oat groats, which are lightly processed groats have relatively slow digestion times. Other forms of oats, such as cut oats also have some of these benefits, but a generally faster digestion time than groats, but still slower than rolled oats. One disadvantage of a cooked or liquid cereal product including groats, bumped oats, or cut oats is that a relatively long cooking time is required in order to soften the groats sufficiently to be swallowed with ease. Without sufficient softening, the groat or steel cut oat can remain relatively hard and undesirable for human consumption.
Hot grain cereals on the market today typically provide only one milling process (i.e. rolling) and therefore a uniform digestion process that does not regulate carbohydrate or other nutrition delivery times, nor do they typically provide different grain milling types that have different digesting times and carbohydrate delivery.
In addition, intact whole grain (i.e. with or without hulls, but including the testa or seed coating) is considered to provide health benefits, such as including naturally occurring nutrients and phytochmicals. However, the above-discussed products suffer a disadvantage in that they typically cannot make use of whole unprocessed grains, which are viewed as not susceptible of inclusion in a commercial product, without at least some processing.
It is understood that the high and frequent pervasive consumption of high glycemic index foods in common modern diets can result in various health problems, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, high-glycemic index diets result in high levels of insulin, which increase hunger and favor fat deposition. Staving off a hungry feeling is understood to be one reason for obesity, in which a hungry feeling results in further food consumption. Low satiety occurring with high-glycemic index foods translates into significantly increased food and calorie consumption leading to weight gain in many people. Satiety is a function several food attributes: the glycemic index, level of dietary fiber, starch resistance, digestion time, and carbohydrate availability or delivery.
Therefore, there exists a need for a liquid or cooked cereal product that includes grains with plural digestion time rates, which can be used for regulating carbohydrate or other nutrition delivery to consumers, and also for specific use to control carbohydrate delivery. There also exists a need for foods that provide a regulated nutrition and especially carbohydrate delivery for blood glucose level control and treatment of diabetes. There also exists a need foor foods that provide regulated nutrition delivery in order to control appetite and provide assistance with dieting or other treatment of obesity. Furthermore, there exists a need for a liquid or cooked cereal product that has relatively simple manufacture and preparation processes. In addition, there exists a need for other grain or seed based products having varied rates of nutrition time release.